When the name of a boat is not a business news story

“Turns out overdraft fees are still big moneymakers for some banks. So much so that a former chief executive of a midsize bank named his boat after the fee.” –Washington Post

“Among the juicy details included in a new consumer advocacy lawsuit filed Thursday was this one: The former CEO of a Midwest bank actually named his boat … “Overdraft.” – Money

“U.S. oversight officials accused Minnesota-based TCF National Bank of tricking thousands of customers into accepting overdraft fees with such aggressiveness that the practice ended up as the name of the former CEO’s pleasure boat.” – USA Today

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in a lawsuit against TCF Financial Corp., claims that the bank overcharged customers who overdrew their accounts.

It’s a good story about how the bank allegedly misled account holders about how much it charged to cover the overdrafts, and pressured them to buy overdraft protection after the Federal Reserve Board amended its regulations to require that customers “opt in” for coverage. Otherwise, banks couldn’t charge overdraft fees.

It’s always interesting to read about banks that might have cheated their customers. It’s especially so in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, where TCF has branches and where many aggrieved bank customers might want to get some of their money back before they switch banks.

The lawsuit says TCF’s overdraft fees totaled $180 million a year. You don’t need gimmicks to make the story interesting.

But a couple of throwaway lines in the lawsuit inspired efforts to dumb down the story. “TCF’s CEO at the time the Opt-In Rule went into effect was particularly attuned to how important overdraft fees are to TCF’s success. He even named his boat the Overdraft.”

We don’t know why the CEO did that and no one seems to have asked him. But that didn’t stop the Post, Money, USA Today and many others from putting that boat in their leads. It wasn’t even “clever” – they just parroted the lawsuit, without elaboration. The Post never bothered to come back to the boat later in the story so readers might have a fighting chance to know whether it was relevant.

“Wait,” I hear you cry. “If it’s stoopid, why carry it further?” Exactly. Tossing in the line about the boat isn’t worth the extra effort to explain the circumstances. Editors should have kicked back the stories and told the writers to get serious.

Marketwatch (which did resist leading with the boat) quoted a TCF spokesman: “The name of a boat is simply irrelevant to this matter.” The spokesman was right, which is something of an upset.

And what’s up with the picture of a boat that ran with the Money story? Is it the boat?

Where was it taken? When? If it’s the CEO’s boat, wouldn’t it have been nice to have shown “Overdraft” painted on the stern? Or wasn’t it there? As much of a distraction as it is, readers are owed an explanation.

Phillip Blanchard is a former business editor at the Washington Post. Previously he worked at the Chicago Sun-Times and newspapers in upstate New York. He is founder of Testy Copy Editors.

I dunno, Phil. It *is* a little cheap, especially as there were no more details about either the banker or the boat. If you’re going to snag readers with a boat called Overdraft and a banker who overcharged $180M, then let’s know how much the boat cost. What kind it is. And, as you say, let’s see a shot of the stern. Boat people are weird about boat names, from mothers’ names to eye-rolling cute stuff like Reel Knotty or Sea Me Go (mine is called Toad. And yes, there’s a story). So I’m OK with the boat mention, as an illustration of the Baker’s malfeasance/tone deafness. But if you’re going to take that sidetrack, the reporter needs to develop it into a little more than a throw-away.

Gee, I don’t know why copy editors get the reputation they do — wait, it’s because of guys like this.

Here’s the deal: telling detail. Whatever the actual reason is that the guy named his boat “Overdraft,” this illustrates that he takes the idea lightly — even thinks it’s a cool joke. If Steven Bannon names his boat “Holocaust 2017” that’s relevant — even if we don’t have him on the record telling us WHY he did it.

Banks have abused overdraft policies for decades, and targeted that abuse at the poor and minorities, often as a kind of payday loan. Banks have gone to great lengths to trick their own CUSTOMERS into create unnecessary overdrafts, just to generate fee income. Banks have been sued and criminally fined for abusive overdraft policies, as account fees have grown to become a bigger and bigger share of bank profits over the last 20 years. And this guy thinks, Hey, let me name my boat — something none of my overdraft victims can afford — let me name it “Overdraft.” Hahahahahaha!

That is THE definition of a telling detail for a WRITER. As for a copy editor from the Washington Post — a paper that’s never been known for it’s business coverage — Phil Blanchard can dry up and blow away.

This website is operated by Chris Roush, who teaches “Writing and Reporting,” “Business Reporting,” “Economics Reporting,” and “Business and the Media” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.